Tuesday, August 23, 2011

5.8 magnitude

5.9 earthquake in Va. felt in NYC to North Carolina

No tsunami threat on East Coast

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia forced evacuations of all the monuments on the National Mall in Washington and rattled nerves from Georgia to Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where President Barack Obama is vacationing. No injuries were immediately reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep and centered near Louisa, Va., about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated.
Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in the same county as the epicenter were automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of the earthquake, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Dominion-operated power plant is being run off of four emergency diesel generators, which are supplying power for critical safety equipment. Hannah said the agency was not immediately aware of any damage at nuclear power plants in the Southeast.

Oh my goodness! This just happened! I am at work and was scared out of my mind! I was on the phone with a customer who was in Urbanna and she said her house was shaking. Her exact words were "what in the hell, my house is moving" I knew my chair was shaking and then when I saw the blinds shaking I knew we were having an earthquake. I ran across the hall to Beverly and she and I stood in her office holding hands as everything was still shaking. We didn't know what was going to happen next. After I got myself together I ran back over here and called and checked on Abigail, she and Robbie were fine. Karen is in the Gloucester office and all is fine there. So many thoughts went through my mind, all I wanted was my family close by. I called Robert and spoke to Jim, his co-worker, he assured me Robert was ok. He was already in the field doing inspections on the nuclear weapons on the base.